Taylor Swift just dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, and the internet is already abuzz with easter eggs, Travis Kelce references and, of course, who those two diss tracks could actually be about.
After combing through the Taylor Swift Reddit threads and trading the tea with PureWow editors, here's who "Actually Romantic" and "Father Figure" may well be about. Thankfully, we are over the Kim and Kanye drama!
The brat princess made waves with the track "Sympathy is a knife" on her 2024 album. With lines like "This one girl taps my insecurities," "'Cause I couldn't be her if I tried/I'm opposite, I'm on the other side" and "Don't wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend's show/Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick" the song was rumored to be about Swift, who at the time was dating Matty Healy. Healy is the frontman of The 1975, in which Charli's husband, George Daniel, is the drummer.
"Actually Romantic" is thus generally believed to be about Charli. Swift writes, "I heard you call me 'Boring Barbie' when the coke's got you brave/High-fived my ex and then you said you're glad he ghosted me/Wrote me a song sayin' it makes you sick to see my face." The track is definitely patronizing, with Swift comparing the song's subject to a dog in a handbag—something adorable—that Swift is maddeningly choosing to interpret as flattery.
"Father Figure" is believed to allude to Scott Borchetta, the owner of Big Machine Records who signed Swift and represented all her albums until 2019's Lover. Borchetta infamously sold Swift's entire catalogue to her nemesis, Scooter Braun. This year, Swift was finally able to buy it back for a reported $360 million.
"Father Figure" charts a person—allegedly Borchetta—plucking a bright-eyed young ingénue from obscurity and, in a style not unlike The Godfather, says, "Pulled up to you in the Jag, turned your rags into gold...You remind me of a younger me/I saw potential..." and, notably, the post chorus: "Leave it with me/I protect the family."
The song chronicles what the protagonist feels is his protégé's betrayal, with the lyrics: "Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition/On foolish decisions which led to misguided visions/That to fulfill your dreams, you had to get rid of me." That quite possibly is a reference to Swift's decision to leave Big Machine for Republic Records, in which she negotiated a groundbreaking deal to own her future masters.
Either Swift is swinging her victory in his face, or is still showing some signs of fear, because the song ends with, "You pulled the wrong trigger/This empire belongs to me." Is Swift or Borchetta talking? We'll never know...
